Road Tripping with 14 People… What Could Go Wrong?

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Road Tripping with 14 People… What Could Go Wrong?"

Podcast: More Than Reality with Adam and Danielle
Episode: 85
Hosts: Adam and Danielle Busby
Release Date: June 4, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this lively episode, Adam and Danielle Busby recount their ambitious and chaotic family road trip: 14 people, two families, a massive Sprinter van, countless bags, and all the joys—and mishaps—that come from hitting the open road together en route to family camp. With real-life details, humor, and relatable challenges, the couple gives listeners a behind-the-scenes look at not just the trip itself, but the extensive planning, unexpected turns, epic snacking, and even the moments that tested everyone’s patience. Their candid storytelling turns a simple road trip into a memorable family adventure, layered with life lessons and genuine insights about traveling (and surviving) as a big group.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Packing and Prepping for Chaos

• Packing for a Themed Adventure: Danielle began prepping weeks in advance due to the need for themed outfits (circus, camo, movie night), multiple weather scenarios, and activities involving water and the outdoors.
  • “I literally probably started prepping, like, two or three weeks before...there were three different theme nights.” — Danielle [03:33]
• Logistics of a Multi-Family Road Trip: The Busbys and their friends, the Spell family, decided against caravanning separately and instead rented a large 14-passenger Sprinter van for efficiency and fun.
• Dog Logistics: The Busby dogs (Bo and Gus) stayed with family in Louisiana, requiring an initial leg just to deliver the pets.

2. The Van: A Road-Trip Character of Its Own

• Van Realities: The Sprinter van was much bigger and harder to maneuver than anticipated, especially at food stops, but it was comfortable and surprisingly easy to drive on highways.
  • “Here comes the big 14 passenger sprinter van, which was way longer than I expected. It was way bigger than I expected.” — Adam [00:01, 06:24]
• Packing Like Tetris: Fitting 14 people’s bags required problem-solving—borrowing hitch racks, custom-built shelving, and trial-and-error stacking.
  • Claire: “It took us about maybe three times, honestly. And we got it. We got it all in there perfectly.” — Danielle [11:56]

3. Road Trip Adventures: Stops and Sickness

• First Stop – Old Hotel in Mobile, AL:
  • The hotel, full of history and odd smells, vexed the group with non-adjoining rooms, peculiar layouts, and late-night shuffling of tired kids.
  • “It just smells really bad. It smells like pee. It smells wet. Smells gross.” — Adam [17:26]
• Surprising Sleepers and Siblings: With 8 Busby kids and their friends’ children, room and car configurations rotated constantly, balancing early sleepers, late-night talkers, and the usual sibling antics.
• Next Leg – Great Wolf Lodge, GA: One night at the kid-friendly resort before camp provided a much-needed break and fun for the children—“24 hours in a Great Wolf Lodge is enough for a mom...that’s all you need.” — Danielle & Adam [21:15]

4. Managing Motion Sickness & Road Trip Exhaustion

• Strategies & Realities:
  • On the way there, no one got carsick, thanks to “all the German, all the peppermint, like, all the things” — Adam [12:35].
  • The way back: A different story. Within 30 minutes, carsickness hit, and improvised solutions (trash bags, peppermint oil, stops for breakfast) became essential.
  • “We were like, not even 30 minutes in the car, and we were like, we need to get breakfast, but we need to get these kids out of the car.” — Danielle [28:25]
• Teamwork: Having another parent duo (the Spells) made managing chaos, bathroom breaks, and car sickness far easier.
  • “If I’m doing something, she would jump in and help with something else… just work. Like, we’re like, like-mindedness.” — Danielle [34:12]

5. Life on the Road: Conversations, Snacks & Family Dynamics

• Up Front – Random Deep Dives: Driver and co-pilot (Adam, Ben, Danielle, Corly) passed time on the long drive home with lively debates (“flat earth,” undersea internet cables, and more).
  • “We started talking about flat earth and... all the theories on both sides of it...” — Danielle [32:51]
• In the Back – Controlled Chaos: The kids entertained themselves with iPads, movies, and plenty of snacks. Screen time rules went out the window.
  • “Whatever screen time we’re doing, it’s all happening in the van…they were having the time of their life.” — Adam [13:21]
• Notable Quotes about Traveling as a Group:
  • “We just brought in a circus in... a football team and baseball team, whatever. And so people are open. But I’m like, oh, but it’s okay. It doesn’t look like it’s just the Buzzweed. It just looks like families, and they’re going. They’re their own camp. That’s what we look like.” — Adam [35:10]

6. Unexpected Lessons & Silver Linings

• The Journey Matters: Despite best-laid plans, the best memories came from the unpredictable moments—laughing about the smelly hotel, juggling snacks and throw-up bags, and sharing perspective-shifting conversations.
  • “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps...a lot of the memories that we made were because of the road trip, because of the laughs in the car...”— Adam [42:02]
• Tech Perks: The camp’s facial-recognition media system gave the Busbys access to professional photos, making Danielle’s job as family photographer easier and letting her be present.

7. Would They Do It Again?

• Yes—With Tweaks: Both families are already planning for next year, ready to repeat the experience with a few adjustments (better schedules on the departure, possibly more stops, maybe a smaller van).
  • “So next year, yeah, we’ll definitely do this again.” — Danielle [44:02]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On packing for 14 people:
  “It took us about maybe three times, honestly. And we got it. We got it all in there perfectly.” — Danielle [11:56]

• On old hotels:
  “It just smells really bad. It smells like pee. It smells wet. Smells gross.” — Adam [17:26]

• On group travel chaos:
  "We just brought in a circus in...a football team...But it’s okay. It doesn’t look like it’s just the Busbys. It just looks like families, and they’re going. That’s what we look like." — Adam [35:10]

• On why the journey matters:
  “We plan our route, we plan our stops, we packed everything we thought we needed. But honestly, a lot of the memories that we made were because of the road trip, because of the stops, because of the laughs in the car…” — Adam [42:02]

• On road trip snacks:
  “Good Ranchers beef sticks… Oh, dude, the beef sticks were a hit. Actually, I wish we would have counted how many packs we went through.” — Adam & Danielle [39:47]

• On next year’s trip:
  “We’re already planning to go back to this family camp next year, and I think that we could still manage to do this again.” — Danielle [38:32]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:01–06:24: Introduction, setting the scene, van reveal
• 10:02–12:24: The Tetris of loading luggage for 14
• 13:53–14:31: First travel day, arrival at historic Mobile hotel
• 17:26–19:43: Hotel struggle—smells, room confusion, and late-night systems
• 21:05–22:23: Great Wolf Lodge stop—a highlight for the kids
• 27:44–31:42: The return journey—car sickness chaos and survival tips
• 32:03–33:18: Front seat conversations: internet cables, flat Earth, road trip philosophizing
• 34:12–35:28: Why traveling with friends works & group dynamic observations
• 39:47–40:48: Essential and favorite road trip snacks
• 42:02–44:10: Philosophical reflections and what they'd do differently next time

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Tone, Language, and Atmosphere

Adam and Danielle keep the episode conversational, candid, and lighthearted, with plenty of teasing about each other's quirks and those classic “Busby chaos” moments. Their storytelling is honest and relatable, peppered with warmth, humor, and practical insights—perfect for parents or anyone planning a group getaway (or just curious about their family life off-camera).

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For Next Time

Next episode promises a deep dive into the experiences and stories from the family camp itself, with details on activities, growth, and more unforgettable family moments.

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Transcript

[Adam Busby]

So we're going to talk about the journey before the journey. And here comes the Big 14 passenger sprinter van, which was way longer than I expected. It was way bigger than I expected.

[Danielle Busby]

It was funny whenever we got to camp and our reputation definitely preceded us from the second that we got in there because like we were, we were the ones with the big van.

[Podcast Host/Intro Voice]

This is More Than Reality podcast where we dive into all things faith, family and marriage and share that there is so much more than the reality that you see on the surface. Welcome to More Than Reality with Adam and Danielle Busby.

[Danielle Busby]

All right, welcome to episode 85 of More Than Reality podcast.

[Adam Busby]

We are Adam and Danielle Busby.

[Danielle Busby]

And if you're watching on YouTube, this is definitely a change of scenery. We're not at the house, we're on the go. So we're still kind of on vacation. Probably the next couple episodes we're gonna like

[Adam Busby]

break it down, what we're doing.

[Danielle Busby]

What do you call it? What do you call it?

[Adam Busby]

I don't know.

[Danielle Busby]

Debrief.

[Adam Busby]

Debrief. Okay.

[Danielle Busby]

Debrief one the vacation.

[Adam Busby]

So we're outside. We're in nature.

[Danielle Busby]

It's beautiful. We're in Louisiana. We're in Louisiana at my parents house. And I forgot like half of my. I wasn't expecting to shoot a podcast while we were out here, but then we ended up staying here in Louisiana more days than I thought we were. And I'm like, well, we got to shoot a podcast and I don't necessarily want to drive to Louisiana just for the sake of like, okay, we just have to shoot this podcast. We're gonna give the girls like one more day here at least they're gonna spend the night with cousins tonight. So.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah, so we're gonna talk about the journey before the journey, basically. So we left, let's see, a week,

[Danielle Busby]

a little over a Last Thursday. Last Thursday we left and came to Louisiana for the night.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah, so almost two weeks ago.

[Danielle Busby]

And so I think we, we like, we talked about what we were going to be doing with the vehicle situation on last podcast.

[Adam Busby]

So that has been completed and we're going to discuss that today.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah, so we, we rented us and the spell family. We mentioned Ben and Corley.

[Adam Busby]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There's a lot of stuff that happened before we even like. There's stuff that happens before we even like even got to the van. You know, I mean, let's just talk about like packing, like how do we pack for family vacation? Something we've never done before. There's themes involved. There's water involved. There's probably multiple outfit changes involved. And then we were. So the plan was we're gonna get everything packed. So I literally probably started prepping, like, two or three weeks before, especially with, like, there was three different theme nights that we had to pack for. So we were like, order this. It was like, theme. Was like a circus theme. And then there was, like, movies, and

[Danielle Busby]

then there was a camera.

[Adam Busby]

It was a camo night.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

We also have come back with very congested and exhausted.

[Danielle Busby]

It's usually what happens whenever you're sleep deprived and you do a lot of screaming. So your throat gets all raw and you're out in the middle of the woods, and so you pick up a lot of allergies. You know, all the. All these South Carolina allergies mixed with the Louisiana allergies. Because we always kind of get congested when we come back to Louisiana now.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

And so it's like all of the above.

[Adam Busby]

So we pat down, I mean, everything. We had to bring, like, the pool towels and, you know, all the stuff. What the goal was. Originally, we were going to caravan with the other families going that we were going with the spells. And then the save Paul, is that we invited us, got us in, and, like, got the call to go to camp or whatever. So we were going to caravan. But then Ben had the good idea of, let's rent this big van and go together. And I was like, holy moly. That's a crazy idea. But to do that.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. Because they've. They've gone to.

[Adam Busby]

We already have, like, that. That Sprinter, like, long travel type of van.

[Danielle Busby]

They went to, like, Branson, Missouri, I think, last year, or wherever they went, they rented. And they. They rented, like, a smaller sprinter van.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. And we're like, this is great.

[Danielle Busby]

And they loved it.

[Adam Busby]

So now it was like, let's rent a bigger one. And as all 14 go together. So I was like, oh, my God, that sounds chaotic. But to do that. Our original plan was always to come to Louisiana, visit the Busbys, and they're going to watch Bo and Gus, which is our two dogs. That way we didn't have to board them for an extended long time. And so we were going to be in Louisiana and then go from there. So we were packing and then going to unpack and then repack to then go on the trip. So that was a bit of planning to go into that. Are we going to stay the night? Do we leave extra, extra early in the morning? Like, how does that work? But what we originally did was kids got out of school on Thursday and we loaded up Friday morning, Friday afternoon probably and got on the road and kind of had a separate bag for like this is what we just need something to sleep in and something to wear on the road trip tomorrow. Rest of the things can like stay in the bus. And so we had the whole van packed down, all of it. And so we came to Louisiana, stayed the night, woke up and here comes the big 14 passenger sprinter van which was way longer than I expected. It was way bigger than I expected.

[Danielle Busby]

Which is weird because like I always see sprinter vans on the road and I've always like. And I've always said, well like if our family gets one, I would like to get the 15 passenger sprinter van and just take the back row seats out of it. So we have, it's almost like a truck bed back there if you take that last row. And so you can just, I mean you can go anywhere in it, you can pack so much in it. And, and now after, I mean it was very easy to drive, not very easy to maneuver and like park like whenever you're like at a fast food restaurant or something like that, you kind of have to get away from people because it's so big and it just sticks out so far. But I don't know, I may rethink that. Maybe start looking for a 12 passenger sprinter van instead of a 15 passenger.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah, I think the 12 passenger is fine. That van was just big and.

[Danielle Busby]

But if we ever do this again, we already own a sprinter van.

[Adam Busby]

Yes. And we drove start doing this every year. Houston, Friendswood, all the way to, to South Carolina. So on the way there we were going to drive straight to South Carolina and go stay at some of Spell's friends like lake house. But the weather was not good. So we're like, that's really not going to be any fun. So I said let's go with my original plan and it was to make road trip and with stops and staying a place in different place, different city to just kind of break it up, make it fun. And so that turned into the plan.

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[Danielle Busby]

As we started to get closer to the trip, we were just watching the, the weather forecast every like multiple times a day and realized, crap, it's going to rain probably half of this trip. And so we had to figure that out. As far as you know, we originally were going to go to this lake house and spend the day out on the boat and do all this stuff. But it would be kind of pointless if it was raining the whole time anyway.

[Adam Busby]

And so, so Tried to make it to where we were, going to a different place, something else to see and do something like kid family related and then wake up next day, drive another, you know, half day or whatever. So our first stop. So before we get to that, I'm

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[Danielle Busby]

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[Adam Busby]

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[Adam Busby]

Waiting the van, the, the big sprinter van pulls up and so the spells have their stuff packed in the van. And now we have to unpack our van and put 14 pieces of luggage basically for 14 people into this one van, which thankfully this van had a legit luggage holding system back there, shelf and all that.

[Danielle Busby]

And so how many times Ben actually built the shelf because, oh, he did shelf in it.

[Adam Busby]

Okay, that's, so that's what that was. How.

[Danielle Busby]

That's one. They got on the road a little bit later.

[Adam Busby]

So that's what he was. Okay, I didn't, I didn't put two and two together with that. So, so how many, how long did it take y' all to play Tetris with the luggage in the back?

[Danielle Busby]

So originally Ben was, we were worried about okay, are we going to be able to fit all the luggage in the back of this van?

[Adam Busby]

And so especially since we were already here with our packed luggage.

[Danielle Busby]

And so he had no clue like what all of our luggage looked like. And so he borrowed one of those hitch mounted trays racks to go, like in the hitch of the back of the van, just in case we had to put some stuff in the back.

[Adam Busby]

And he really did not want to drive without us.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah, he really wanted to make this work. And so, you know, we started bringing all of our luggage out, and we pull all theirs out, like, laid everything out in front. And it took us about. I mean, I would say, like, we. We would set stuff up, stand back, look at it. Look at what was laying on the floor. Okay, let's reconfigure that. Pull that back out. And it took us about maybe three times, honestly. And we got it. We got it all in there perfectly.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

I mean, there wasn't.

[Adam Busby]

There was a little bit of space.

[Danielle Busby]

There was a little bit of space way up in the top, right.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. But what we failed to do was take a picture of.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

How it all went in there because we were road tripping. And so the first. When we left, we all got in the car and we left. We were driving all the way to Alabama was where we were gonna stop. Mobile for the night.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

And originally, depending on what time, we were gonna go to, like, a museum and, like, do these fun kid things. But we got there later than expected. So we really just got on the

[Danielle Busby]

road a little bit later than we wanted to.

[Adam Busby]

We really just. And there was traffic and stuff. Go the Chapelaya and into Baton Rouge. Like, there's always traffic through there, but we get everybody. I was like, I struggle with car sickness, motion. Some of our girls do. I know the spells kids do. So me and Koi were like, we're bringing all the German, all the peppermint, like, all the things to help everyone not get car sick. So on the way there, like, I felt like we did great.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah, I was. I was surprised. Nobody. Nobody complained about getting car sick.

[Adam Busby]

Our first day of traveling was. Was.

[Danielle Busby]

But it was only, like, it was all excitement.

[Adam Busby]

That excitement. The kids are all in the back and it's like, party. And it's like, you know, on a road trip, it's like, we don't care what you do. Just let's stay content and whatever. So we're like watching a movie, playing on the iPads and the games and all that stuff. It's like, it's all. Whatever screen time we're doing, it's all happening in the van, you know, because otherwise it's out, you know, so they were all content, like, they were having time of their life in the van. And. And I guess it was about, like, five, six hours to Mobile, was it?

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah, about six hours.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. So when the time we got there, well, we did stop for lunch, I think at Marouche. We stopped for Chick Fil a on the way there.

[Danielle Busby]

Yep.

[Adam Busby]

So got out, ate lunch, takes an hour and got back in, drove and it started raining and whatnot. And so we get to Mobile, get to the hotel and now it's dark, we don't really have much to do and it's raining and it's raining. We're ready to get out of the van and we're hungry. So we check in the hotel. And it's an old, old, old Marriott hotel, which is incredible. The story and all of it around it.

[Danielle Busby]

Super old hotel, super historic.

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[Adam Busby]

What comes with an old hotel?

[Danielle Busby]

Well over 100 years old? Yeah, rebuilt.

[Adam Busby]

It was built in the 1800s actually, and then it had a fire and they rebuilt it in 1920. But what comes with the old hotel is a lot of smells and didn't smell bad when we walked in or whatever, but when we got up to our room, we were like, what we had two rooms because we're eight people, and it's very hard to find a big enough room to fit all of us. But we. We had two rooms. So what that means is I'm going to have three kids in my room. Adam's going to have three kids in his room. And our rooms were supposed to be joining, but when we got to one room, we had to walk down, go down the corner, and get to the other room. So we're like, okay, whatever. It's fine. We're just here for a night sleeping. We're getting up and leaving.

[Danielle Busby]

But it was the weirdest. We walk in. I walked in my room with my girls, and it was like the weirdest configuration of a hotel room I've ever seen, because it was like, you walk in the front door, and then immediately on the left, I mean, on the right is the bathroom, and then there's a closet, and you walk a little bit more forward and right on the right, there's, like, a TV credenza. And then you go left, and the room was just super long. And then two queen beds are, like, stacked back that direction. But then there was another door back in the corner.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

I'm like, what is that?

[Adam Busby]

And so then my room, we open a door, and we're like. I had. Who did I have with me? Blake, Ava, and Parker. Yeah, you had Hazel, Riley, and Olivia. And so we are. I was just like, I. I can't. It smells like. It just smells really bad. It smells like pee. It smells wet. Smells gross. And so we go downstairs, and we're like, hey, it smells really weird. Like, is there another room? And they're like, oh, well, let's send somebody up and check this out. And y' all was like, it's the whole floor. It's not like. It's not like, just my room. Like, you can smell. Smell it. So on the way back up, Olivia's like, let's stop on floor four and then go to floor six and see if they smell. So we played that adventure. But anyways, this guy comes in. We're all standing, waiting for him to get the room, and you open the door, and it's like, kid, kid, kid, kid. He's like, what's going on in here? But he comes. So anyways, it made it better. We then go down to dinner. Kids are running around. There's nobody down there. So we're like, hey, we're the only one in the restaurant.

[Danielle Busby]

We caught the rest restaurant, like, just a few minutes before they closed, and they just Accommodated.

[Adam Busby]

And the food was great.

[Danielle Busby]

It was, like, Italian. Our party of 14. So we had, like, the whole restaurant to ourselves. Kids were kind of.

[Adam Busby]

We're like, they've been stuff. And. And no, thank. Thank the Lord, no one was down there because otherwise we'd been having to make them, like, sit down.

[Danielle Busby]

They were super accommodating and understandable about.

[Adam Busby]

But food was great.

[Danielle Busby]

Kids being.

[Adam Busby]

We go back up to. We go back up to the hotel room, and Adam's like. I was like, well, I have a door in my room, too. So I was like, let's just see.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. Because if mine opens, some of the girls needed their clothes out of the bags. And so we ran. We ran around the corner to your room, and I was like, huh? You have a door on the back. Back into your room, too. And I'm thinking of, like, the configuration of the hallway. And I was like, maybe these are adjoining. And so I opened yours, and then I ran around to the other side, and I unlocked mine. And sure enough, the rooms were adjoining, but in the most weird configuration.

[Adam Busby]

It was weird. It was nice and spacious, for sure.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

But I do remember, like, after dinner, going back up. Kids are all wild and stuff, and they kept coming in my room and coming to me and mom and Mama, and I'm like, nope, you're with daddy tonight. You're with daddy. I got three. You got three. And I closed the door, which is

[Danielle Busby]

funny, but my room went to bed earlier. All my. All my kids went to sleep. I was actually annoyed by y' all still. And I could hear y' all still in the other room watching tv.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah, Ava. And, well, I also had Blake, who stays up late, so I made everybody shower and stuff before then.

[Danielle Busby]

And.

[Adam Busby]

And then I went and showered, and then Ava and Parker were playing Uno. Then Blake went to go take it, so you probably heard her the most. But anyway, so we wake up that next morning, and it was like, load up the van again. And so all we had to take a little bit of the luggage out for us. And so it was like, that's where we were. Like, man, we didn't take a picture of, like, what it looked like in the back.

[Danielle Busby]

Every time we stopped and had to reload the van, we're like, man, I wish we would have taken a picture.

[Adam Busby]

And even saying that, we still failed to take a picture. So then we got up, and then we drove over to, like, four and a half hours we drove. Or like, four hours we drove to Georgia, went to LaGrange. Right. Is that how you say It.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

And we were doing a fun stay at Great Wolf Lodge there. And let me tell you something. 24 hours in a Great Wolf Lodge is enough for a mom.

[Danielle Busby]

That's all you need.

[Adam Busby]

That's all you need.

[Danielle Busby]

That's all you need is 24 hours in Great Wolf.

[Adam Busby]

24 hours, like. But it was really fun. The kids were so excited about that. And that was part of like the, the adventures, like making this our first longest road trip ever. Making it fun like that. And originally that first stop, we were going to be doing this like kids science museum which looked really cool. It was like recommended and stuff. But we just, it was already closed by the time we got over there.

[Danielle Busby]

We're a few hours too late.

[Adam Busby]

So we, we got there at pretty decent time. Like I don't know, like right after lunch. And like we checked in by the time we ate some lunch there. Got our swimsuits on our rooms already. So went up, dropped her stuff and we just water parked, ate dinner there that next morning. Our plan was to go to camp that day so we needed to be there by three. So they played around in the morning. No water park, but just the other activities.

[Danielle Busby]

They did like the putt putt and the ropes course and the climbing wall and a little bit of arcade the next morning. And then it was time to load up the van and hit the road.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. So I am always like the van driver because I get sick and so I was really nervous about being like in the back seat. And so, you know, Ben and Adam were up front and me and Corly were in captain seats. And then Blake was in a captain seat and Daisy was in her car seat. And then the kids are. Other kids were on the benches in the back. But it actually was kind of enjoyable not, not being the one driving. I mean I did sleep a lot because I took a lot of things to make me not get nauseous. But what did it feel like driving the van? I mean I definitely both Blake and I said we can tell the difference from when daddy's driving. Strapping.

[Danielle Busby]

Really?

[Adam Busby]

Yes. Could you drive like this?

[Danielle Busby]

I don't know about that.

[Adam Busby]

Ben did not drive like that van

[Danielle Busby]

is not like that. I could floor it. Not even feel it take off.

[Adam Busby]

We did in the back. You don't feel it up here.

[Danielle Busby]

Like a four cylinder diesel in it. And I could floor it and it would just barely. Yeah, we felt it, I think, you know, just being ridiculous.

[Adam Busby]

No, we're not. But. So I never had to drive. Chloe never drove. I don't think she wanted either of us to drive, which I was like, how am I going to do this without driving? But y' all did good. Y' all rotated.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. Yeah, we.

[Adam Busby]

Was it hard driving it? Have you ever driven anything that big before?

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

What?

[Danielle Busby]

I mean, I used to drive freaking delivery trucks for a furniture store. I've driven much bigger trucks than that. Oh, quite a bit.

[Adam Busby]

I guess I forgot about that. And actually, you drove that RV and

[Danielle Busby]

I've driven an RV that was an adventure. Nothing compared to a sprinter van.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

Or a sprinter van's nothing compared to driving an rv.

[Adam Busby]

So out of all the packing and stuff we did, did you pack any. Did we pack anything that was like, not needed? Like, not necessary? But we brought or we brought something, didn't think we were going to need it, and then it was like, needed.

[Danielle Busby]

I mean, I packed whatever you had

[Adam Busby]

in that gray tube. We didn't need.

[Danielle Busby]

That was my. That we needed. It's the tripod. I didn't need that.

[Adam Busby]

Well, I'm saying that we didn't need it for camp.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. And honestly, I really. I took my camera out two times over the course of while we were at camp. One whenever we went out on the boat, and then one, I just took it down whenever we were. The kids were up on their, like, ropes course and. And then maybe the last day whenever they were doing like the final ceremony thing. Other than that, it was cool because the camp had on site photography. They had a whole media team.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

That was just going around to every single thing and taking like high quality photos while we were doing different things. And. And every night it would get uploaded to the app and. Which was a really cool system because, like, such a cool. They had like facial. Facial recognition so that whenever they would upload all the photos, it would automatically tag you or your family members and put it in your family's feed on the app. So, you know, we're registered. We're registered under our family. So, like all of our photos go right into our app.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

Which was super cool. It was like every morning, like, you could go check.

[Adam Busby]

You never had to worry about taking photos in half the time.

[Danielle Busby]

All the photos from the last day. Although there would be a few photos that I would get probably a little bit more of. But I mean, it was fine. I mean, we. But it's rare that we get like a good, like, group photo of our family because I'm usually the one taking it and I have to stop and try to ask for some. Ask somebody that remotely knows how to take a Photo. And that's always difficult. But whenever we went into, like, a theme night or whenever we just got there, they would have their photographer out front and they would take a group shot of our family.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

And so.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. So all the. The road trip in there was. Was fun. Excited. It actually went like, I was. It was way better than I thought, honestly, way better than I thought. As far as, like, I honestly was very surprised at how well it went.

[Danielle Busby]

I was worried, I mean, because we've been on multiple road trips, but, like, caravanning with the spells and I. And I swear, because they got young kids and so I swear, like, almost every road trip, they would, like, oh, such and such got sick in the car. And it was like.

[Adam Busby]

I mean, we've had those moments whenever

[Danielle Busby]

our kids were younger. We always had this. Always too.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

And so it was just one of those things, like, cr. We're all going to be in such tight quarters, and I'm just worried about the kids getting sick in the car and.

[Adam Busby]

But on the way there, everyone was fine. So we're going to talk about the camp and everything on next episode. So we're talking about the prep and the go and the road trip and everything. This one. So after camp, the goal was to just drive straight. Like, drive the whole, like, 12, 14 hours.

[Danielle Busby]

Drop us back off here in Louisiana.

[Adam Busby]

Drop us off in Louisiana. And, man, we left. We left. We left early.

[Danielle Busby]

That was kind of a grind of a drive.

[Adam Busby]

Oh, I was like, I was. I was. I even took, like, germamine and stuff and peppermint. All this. But so many kids were getting car sick.

[Danielle Busby]

I mean, right after we left, right after. I mean, we weren't even 30 minutes. We weren't even 20 minutes down the road. So we, like, kids puked in the car.

[Adam Busby]

I was like. And it wasn't like they're obsessively throwing up. It's just like this, like, kind of empty stomach type thing. We're like, okay, like, we need to get out.

[Danielle Busby]

I had breakfast.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah, we need to get out. We get them breakfast. Like, let them, like, get out the van. Because we were just gonna, like, pick up and eat and so we could just kind of go, go, go. We were like, not even 30 minutes in the car, and we were like, we need to get breakfast, but we need to get these kids out of the car. So I literally had. I always talk about. I've shared on my stories multiple times about what do you put in your van when you go on a road trip? And it's a pack of Paper towels, the doggy bags for throw up bags for the kids. And some wipes, like wet ones or baby wipes or whatever. And I had Andromede and Germany. I had that. Those doggy bags in my stuff. And I don't know if they rolled out or came out wherever, but we couldn't find them. We didn't need them on the way there. And so I never even had to make sure I had them. And so on the way back, we're like, where are the bags? And we also picked up groceries. So we had like grocery bags.

[Danielle Busby]

We had a roll of trash bags in the van.

[Adam Busby]

We had a roll of trash bags. Trash bags. So it was funny. We had like two Ziploc bags. And so it was like one kid's like this, the other kid's like, with a big trash bag. They're like, it's too big, it's too big. We're like, just keep it right there. Oh man, it was so bad. And then. And then it was like.

[Danielle Busby]

But the other thing, you know, because obviously whenever somebody throws up in the car in such close quarters, it's the smell too. And you got to worry about.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

And everybody else getting.

[Adam Busby]

Came in and handy.

[Danielle Busby]

We're like everybody else getting sick from the smell. And so that. That was another lifesaver was Corley brought peppermint oil.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

Because that helps with nausea. Nausea. But also it like made van smell good otherwise.

[Adam Busby]

I know my kids have been like hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer with the smell around. But we got out, we stopped, made sure to give Germany kids whatever. But we really thought like on the whole way home they would have just been like crashed out most of the time. But I would say for up until. Did we stop for lunch? We did stop at Chick Fil a on the way back on the way there too. Coming home. So we did stop. But up until then, like, we still had like three to four kids, like, nauseous. So that was like thinking how easy it was and how fun it was on the way there. On the way back, we're just like. I remember like Corly's holding one bag for one kid. And I'm over my seat, like holding something for Daisy. And then Blake's right next to her and she's like trying not to smell. And like she had her blanket. She's leaning over here. The kids are in the back like, what is that smell? Is she. And they start gagging and they're not throwing up yet, but they're just like. Just the thought of it then I'm getting, like, super sick and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I don't know how to be a mom right now. Kids are wanting to throw up and, like, I'm back here and. And me and Corley are like in prime of all the kid handling. And Adam and Ben are just like, what's up, bro? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, they have no idea, like, what's going on in the chaos, which was just so funny.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. Like every now and then I would, like, hear somebody talking about somebody throwing up or whatever, but they're like, we were pretty much oblivious up front.

[Adam Busby]

I'm like. At that point, I'm like, man, I really wish I would drive. But then I would be worried that the guy that, like, they wouldn't be holding throw up bags over.

[Danielle Busby]

We were having them.

[Adam Busby]

They'd be sleeping.

[Danielle Busby]

We were having. We were up front having the most random conversations about conspiracy theories, but also, like, just random stuff. Like, because I brought. We would talk about one thing and then we'd start qu. Like asking questions about something else and some on my laptop, and we're just like, looking up answers to all these random things. Like, one of. One of the conversations was about, like, did you know that there's undersea Internet cables that connect the world? I knew that. But Ben, he's like, I didn't know that. I thought, like, Internet just came from, like, space or something. I was like, no, there's actually fiber optic cables under. On the sea floor that connect like, the United States to the Middle east and.

[Adam Busby]

Huh.

[Danielle Busby]

And Europe and all that.

[Adam Busby]

I didn't know that.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. And so, like, I'm sitting there doing research and tell them, and then that would lead on to something else, and then that would lead to something else. And. And then we started. We started talking about flat earth and I do. And all the theories on both. Both sides of it and, like, why people believe this thing. And I don't know.

[Adam Busby]

It was just what I loved.

[Danielle Busby]

Like, interesting conversation. But it's like one of those road trip conversations.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. You're just like, what are we gonna talk about? Talk about whatever. You're stuck up there. I think. I think there was a lot of pros for traveling with another family like that. And here's the thing. We've also learned prior to being in a car, like, confined in a car together, traveling, that our families travel well together.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

Like. Like if we land in a city somewhere, how. How well the kids connect.

[Danielle Busby]

The kids play together very well.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. And I mean, yes, Blake is a Teenager, so she's kind of, like, set out, but I still think that we travel well together, which makes it enjoyable. Right. And so it was really fun adventure for the kids, I think, even for us. Like, I enjoyed, like, the extra mom in. I mean, like, I got six kids, she's got four. So even if I need it, if I'm doing something, she would jump in and help with something else. Or if she's doing something with a kid, then I would jump in. So it would just. It just work. Like, we're like, like mindedness as far as y' all can talk about your flat earth and cables under sea. And we're back here, like, helping each other out with just the swarm of kids back here. And so bathroom breaks were, you know, a system, you know. All right, Adam, order this, this, and this. I'll take him to the bathroom. We come back and, like, you know, so it was very much just. I felt like it worked in my head, it worked easier because I wasn't. Like, a lot of times. A lot of times we walk in somewhere, restaurant, chick Fil A, like, whatever, and it's like, everyone looks at you. Well, guess what? Everybody looking at us now because we just brought in 14 people. You know, we just brought in a circus in, a football team and baseball team, whatever. And so people are open. But I'm like, oh, but it's okay. It doesn't look like it's just the Buzzweed. It just looks like families, and they're going. They're their own camp. That's what we look like.

[Danielle Busby]

It was funny whenever we got to camp and, you know, you'd. You know, our reputation definitely preceded us from the second that we got in there because, like, we were. We were the ones with the big van.

[Adam Busby]

And there were other similar vans.

[Danielle Busby]

There was other sprinter vans.

[Adam Busby]

There was obnoxiously larger.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah, there was other families with big vans, but we definitely had the biggest van. And it was just funny because, like, at least once or twice a day, like, some are like, oh, yeah, you are the ones with that big silver van out front.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah, yeah. So I think. I think there were, you know, the journey there and back was on the way back, like, I would say the kids surprised me at how much they were awake, which I just was like, they're. They're going to be, like, crashed out. Because we all were as the adults. And so Adam and Ben switched off a lot driving, because it was like, you drive like, two or three hours, and then y' all would switch because someone needed a nap. But.

[Danielle Busby]

But it was weird because, like, I think I had. He. He. Whenever we left, he. He drove first, and then whenever we stopped, I drove for the next, like, three or four hours. And then.

[Adam Busby]

Then he drove from lunch to dinner, but I couldn't.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. And then he drove from lunch to dinner, and then. And then I drove from dinner all the way back to Louisiana.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. And they still had the two hours.

[Danielle Busby]

But every time that I wasn't driving, I couldn't sleep. Whenever I was at the wheel, I started to get a little sleepy, but whenever I was in the passenger seat, I couldn't sleep. I tried. He. He crashed out a couple times.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

But I. I couldn't get comfortable to fall asleep. I should have crawled in the back.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

Made one of the kids go sit in the front seat.

[Adam Busby]

I don't know. I just was. I'm glad we. I was so nervous about, like, doing that with other people and a large family, Mainly because I was worried about the kids. Getting annoyed with the kids. And on the way back, there was a lot. Because they were tired at a point, obviously, and it was like, she's laying on top of me. Her feet are here. Blah, blah, blah. Move over. Blah, blah, blah. Make room. So there was a lot of that on the way back because some of the kids. Well, Parker, like, was pretty much nauseous, like, the whole time. And I think it's because she had all that sugar thing that you allowed her to get on the way there. Oh, man. And so I was like, your stomach's gonna hurt tomorrow. Your stomach's gonna hurt. So it did. But I do think that it was fun. I mean, I think next year. We're already planning to go back to this family camp next year, and I think that we could still manage to

[Danielle Busby]

do this again, Primarily because we don't want to lose our space.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. Like, once you're in.

[Danielle Busby]

Once you're in, you're in. But then the waiting list to get into this particular camp is, like, 60 families long.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

And so it was, like, for us to get in, it was, like, stars aligned. And then now that you're in, like, whenever we come back, next year will be the same exact week.

[Adam Busby]

We'll do the same week. So that way, you see.

[Danielle Busby]

So we're week one next week, and you're also in the same cabin that you were in. So everything's the same. And then it. And what's cool about that camp is all the families come back on the same week. And so you get to, I would say, majority.

[Adam Busby]

Some of Them switch.

[Danielle Busby]

You get to. You get to see the same families every year you come back, the kids kind of grow up with each other. Yeah, they can look forward to seeing friends from last year and stuff. It just makes everything familiar and easier just to dive right in. So yeah, it's. It's a cool system how they have it set up for sure.

[Adam Busby]

So let's see. What was your favorite road trip snack?

[Danielle Busby]

Good Ranchers beef sticks.

[Adam Busby]

Oh, dude, the beef sticks were a hit. A hit actually. I wish we would have counted how many packs we went through.

[Danielle Busby]

I think like six.

[Adam Busby]

Us or total?

[Danielle Busby]

Total.

[Adam Busby]

I think it was more than that.

[Danielle Busby]

Six or eight Good ranchers beef sticks and. Trying to think what else. I even snacked on Cor's mom baked cookies.

[Adam Busby]

Oh yeah, she made car cookies. So like little bite sized cookies. Sourdough like made cookies. Those were good. Those were my favorite. You also love, you love gas station snacks. What are they? The Coke. Little coke bottle gummies.

[Danielle Busby]

Gummy coke bottles.

[Adam Busby]

Gross. This tastes like licorice.

[Danielle Busby]

And my favorite all time favorite candy bar is Reese's nut Rageous.

[Adam Busby]

He found that on the way back.

[Danielle Busby]

And I always get the king size one.

[Adam Busby]

See who. Who slept the most?

[Danielle Busby]

Not me. What do you mean?

[Adam Busby]

I mean, you've never been a car sleeper anyway. I mean, I would say I would actually, hands down Blake. Blake won the car sleeping. Who talked the most? Ben and Adam, probably.

[Danielle Busby]

So we talked about a lot. I mean all just a ton of random conversations. But we also talked a lot of work stuff too.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

Like planning future stuff. And so.

[Adam Busby]

So I think the, the big question is, would we do this again? And I think the answer is yes.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

As we look to next year, I think that I don't know how much longer we could do this to this family trip with the kids as they grow, as they're growing. But I do think by next year we could still do this again, which is super exciting. Like the kids are already. The kids. Day two, they're like. So next year we come back.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. Yeah. We hadn't even talked about this yet. So you're already planning next year.

[Adam Busby]

So let's see. So Proverbs 16, 9 says, we can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. So we plan our route, we plan our stops, we packed everything we thought we needed. But honestly, a lot of the memories that we made were because of the road trip, because of the stops, because of the laughs in the car and, and the, you know, the smelly hotel to the thrown up jokes and laughs in the Car to the peppermint, to throwing snacks in the back to like, like, can I have this? And you're just like tossed it like we do in our van. And it just, you know, it just reminds me like that's how God works. Like sometimes we plan ahead, but God is like the one who is making our steps in that direction. You know, like we can plan, plan, plan, but he's forming our steps. And so some of the memories along the road trip are some of the best parts of what the trip were. And I love that we had this experience that we were brave enough to like I was brave enough to do this together with another, you know, family of six and family of eight to ride in close quarters together. But the van, the van was awesome. The van was key. And so I felt like that helped me just mentally think about, like, how am I going to not hurt as much in my body ache and all these things. But we always tend to spend a lot of time focused on like destination and what's to come and what, what's it going to be like. But sometimes the greatest part is the journey and the lessons we learned through the journey. And so I love that we did this. And it was our first time at family camp and our first big road trip with another family. And so I just think that these are memories right there that were created, are going to last forever, you know, so.

[Danielle Busby]

So next year, yeah, we'll definitely do this again. And

[Adam Busby]

is there anything you would change on the road trip situation?

[Danielle Busby]

I mean, not really. Probably. I still would this, that first leg of just like leaving early, being able to leave early. But I understand why they got out so late. For one thing, they were waiting for the van to get delivered. But then Ben. And it wasn't the van that we thought we were getting, and the one that we thought we were getting had the shelving in the back for all the suitcases. And so whenever we got it, it was a different van. Something like the check engine light or something came on the van. And so they couldn't bring the one

[Adam Busby]

area that they didn't do that.

[Danielle Busby]

So they got us a different van. And so Ben had to make the shells before they left. And so that's understandable why we got out so late. But we would have been able to do like maximize like the fun that first day too.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah, I think I would like to do that again. And I don't mind the drive all the way home because, you know, usually after the trip you want to get home. But I think I would like that extra day ahead and. And make a different route with a different stop to make another fun adventure.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

On the way there. Because I enjoyed that. And I think that if the weather, it made it fun.

[Danielle Busby]

If the weather was going to be good, we would have done other things anyway.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah.

[Danielle Busby]

But. Yeah, if we. And also, like, if we didn't have anything because they had to get back to go to, like, a birthday party and something else the next day as well. But I wouldn't even mind, like, breaking it up and spending, like, the drive home on. And take two days to get home and go somewhere and, like, stop and, like, sightsee.

[Adam Busby]

It's just hard because, like, you're so exhausted.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. That. That is difficult on a road trip, for sure.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. That day, I mean, that we were all aching and after.

[Danielle Busby]

After a week of camp, you're just ready to get home.

[Adam Busby]

Yeah. Anyways, well, thanks for listening to episode 85. Next week we will actually talk about camp.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah.

[Adam Busby]

So lots of fun, exciting things to share then.

[Danielle Busby]

Yeah. A lot of. Lot of fun stuff to get into, for sure. All right, thank you guys for tuning in. Episode 85. We'll see you in the next one.

[Adam Busby]

Peace out.

[Danielle Busby]

All right, we love you guys. Sam,